Beauty and the Beast

Fly high

*Trigger warning*

This chapter mentions suicide / depression / death / bullying / assault.

Shehnaaz

"Please leave us alone" I beg as karan hits rishi again in the stomach making him fall. The school day has ended now. We were trying to get home through the back of the school, it's the path rishi and I take to get home unseen but I guess karan and his friends found out.

"I'm not sure....it might cost you" he smirks, looking me up and down as I'm held back by his stupid friends. "No, shehnaaz. Don't make a deal with him" rishi grunts and karan kicks him again.

"Stop! Please, what do you want in return?" I ask, wanting this torture on rishi to stop. I mean we're 17 now and nothings getting easier.

"Well, you're quite beautiful" he winks and I suddenly feel very self conscious and awkward.

"Don't touch her" rishi growls. "What are you going to do about it?" karan laughs, looking at rishi who struggled to get up.

"I won't let you hurt her" rishi says and suddenly his fist made contact with karan's face. I take it as an opportunity to hit the guy holding me in the groin and I kicked the other in the shin.

"Let's go!" I yell. Rishi and I run as fast as we can back to his place, which is right next to mine. We knew neither of our parents were home because of work and they wouldn't be for a while now.

"Are you okay? Your nose is bleeding. Your lips busted and I can see the bruises forming" I ask as we catch our breath in his living room.

"Yeah, I'm fine. How about you go home and get cleaned up. I'm going to take a shower and fix my appearance before my parents come back" he sighs and I nod, knowing that's the best option and we were used to hiding this from our parents. We told them when we were younger about the bullying but they thought we were being dramatic.

"Okay, I'll be back in an hour or two" I say, exhausted as I walk back to my house. I drop my school bag and went straight to my room before laying on my bed and falling into a deep sleep.

A loud bang woke me from my sleep. I got up quickly. It wasn't from my house. "Mum?! Dad?!' I yell out as I exit the room.

They aren't home yet.

I exit my house and head to rishi's to ask if he heard it too. His parents car wasn't in the drive so they weren't home either. I knock on the front door and enter.

"rishi?!" I yell out but there was no answer.

"rishi?! Did you hear that bang?!" I yell, slowly going up the stairs to his room. Maybe he's just entered the shower. But my stomach turned, I knew something wasn't right.

I put my ear up to his bedroom door but don't hear a shower running or anything. I knock softly, maybe he's asleep. I decide to take a deep breath and open his bedroom.

"Rishi"

My eyes go wide at what's in front of me, my brain can't even process what I'm seeing.

The pool of blood surrounding his body, a body that wasn't moving. His chest didn't go up or down. A gun fell slightly by his left hand.

I screamed.

I ran to his body, breathing heavily. Everything was covered in blood and I saw the bullet right between his eyes which made me sick. I held back the vomit as I shook my head in disbelief, I knew he couldn't be saved but the heart break and the pain that I felt was unbearable.